Canterbury's James Graham accused of biting in Australian Grand Final

James Graham, pictured, was accused of biting the ear of the Melbourne Storm full-back, Billy Slater, following a Canterbury try in the National Rugby League Grand Final in Sydney. Photograph: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

James Graham, the former St Helens prop who has captained England and is a contender to lead them into next year's World Cup, earned himself lasting Australian sporting infamy when he was accused of biting the ear of the Melbourne Storm full-back, Billy Slater, in the National Rugby League Grand Final in Sydney.

Graham, a 27-year-old from Maghull in Merseyside who stumbled on rugby league by accident after encouragement from his Cumbrian father, has won rave reviews for his debut season in the NRL since joining the Canterbury Bulldogs from St Helens last autumn.

But that will be overshadowed by an apparent moment of madness in a brawl that followed a try for the Canterbury wing Sam Perrett in the 26th minute. Slater made a complaint to the referee Tony Archer, pointing to blood on his ear, and television pictures left little doubt that Graham had bitten it. "Fucking oath, he bit me," Slater said.

Archer then said to his fellow referee, Ben Cummins: "You see the incident, you see the blood on the ear, everyone has seen that. That incident is on report."

Phil Gould, the former New South Wales coach who is one of Australia's highest-profile pundits, compared the incident to Mike Tyson's notorious bite on Evander Holyfield.

Daniel Anderson, who coached Graham at St Helens and now works for ABC Radio, was more measured but admitted: "It doesn't look good."

The incident continued Graham's Grand Final misery. He had lost the Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford in each of his last five seasons with St Helens after a single win way back in 2006.

But there was joy for one England international – Gareth Widdop, the Melbourne stand-off who spent his early years in Halifax before his family emigrated to Victoria. He became the first British Grand Final winner since Adrian Morley with the Sydney Roosters in 2002.

The Storm took an early lead through a try from Ryan Hoffman, the second-row who rejoined them after a year with Wigan. Perrett's try brought the Bulldogs level but the Melbourne scrum-half, Cooper Cronk, who won the Clive Churchill Medal as man of the match, laid on scores for Slater and Justin O'Neill that established a 14-4 half-time lead.

There was no scoring in the second half, giving Melbourne, who were visited by Rupert Murdoch in the build-up to the game, their fourth Grand Final victory. However, it will go down in the record books as their first title since 1999, as the last two, in 2007 and 2009, were annulled because of the club's systematic cheating of the salary cap.